A Fuzzytail Tale
| A Fuzzytail Tale | |||||||||
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Awesome Possum Baji Frieren Runner4 |
Character1 Character2 | ||||||||
Summary
An agent of the fae hires runners to figure out why a metaplanar farm has stopped supplying its tasty treats, after a monster has been attacking their livestock and crops. It is revealed that the "monster" is a former friend from the farmer's past life as a bandit, and the runners reunite the two and mend the relationship.
Background
A jarl by the name Iobhar has been spending the past several years on Earth, meddling with metahuman affairs and amassing wealth through various schemes and business ventures. However, being so far from Faerie leaves him craving a taste of home and so arranges for a farm on a hyper-metaplane called the Fields of Delight to delivery him fae sweets from time to time. That farm failed to deliver recently, and so he's tasked one of his metahuman agents, Darragh Sheehan, with looking into the issue. Ancient treaties and pacts prevent the Seelie and Unseelie Courts and their agents from meddling in the affairs of the Fields of Delight, so Darragh turns to hiring shadowrunners.
Meanwhile, in the Fields of Delight, a spider-like spirit named Silky Grimshadow has been terrorizing the Fuzzytail Farm in retaliation for being abandoned by the owner years ago when Farmer Fuzzytail and the rest of a gang known as the Bloody Bon Bons decided to go straight and take up an agrarian life instead of crime. Hoping to drive them back to banditry by ruining the farm, Silky has started attacking their fields, stealing and tearing apart lifestock, and committing vandalism. Farmer, and his wife Goodie, have no idea who's responsible for the acts, but are on their wits end and don't see a way to meet their obligations to their farmhands and clients if it continues.
The Meet
The runners are told to meet at a high end cafe in Bellevue called the Moondrop Cafe after closing, and do so once Awesome Possum untangles herself from a gig playing at a dive bar and Frieren wraps up a tea party with fae spirits. The cafe's proprietor, Darragh Sheehan, explains that his boss is having supply-chain issues with a farm very, very far away, playfully dancing around the fact that he means to send the runners on a metaplanar quest, until Frieren catches on and informs the team. He assumes them that he can handle "travel", and that it should only be a spiritual journey rather than a physical one. The team eventually agrees, and he supplies them with cookies containing alchemical compounds from the Fields of Delight that will temporarily send someone's astral form to the Fields once consumed.
They decide to all eat the cookies in Awesome Possum's parked car instead of leaving their bodies in the cafe, and suddenly find themselves getting very, very sleepy after eating the sweet treats...
The Plan
When their eyes open, they're laying in the middle of a field somewhere with a sky stuck in perpetual twilight, everything more intense than it was on Earth. The orange and pink sky was more beautiful than any Earthly sunset, the breeze was sweet and tantalizing, etc etc. The runners also realize they've been transformed to better fit into a storybook fairy tale setting, but press onward and head towards the nearest farm, which matches the description of Fuzzytail Farm given by their Johnson.
The runners hear sobbing on the wind as they get closer, and see that the rabbit folk farmhands are in the process of repairing damage and trying to put back together dismembered marshmallow goats while Farm Fuzzytail sobs on the farmhouse's stoop while being comforted by his wife, Goodie. Goodie greets the runners as they approach, asks what they're doing there, and is very pleased to hear that they've been hired to solve the problems the farm has been having. The runners ask the pair of rabbit folk a few questions, but Farmer gets cagey when he's asked if they have any enemies who could be responsible for this damage.
They're told to check in with the farm's foreman, Scarn Blackfoot, who's been trying to set guards at night to hopefully catch whatever's responsible. Scarn is powerful, eyepatched rabbit folk, and the runners start noticing that many of the farmhands have scars and old wounds that hint at a life doing something more dangerous than farming in the past. He blames the sabotage on the ghost of a witch from the neighboring Sour Patch Swamp, being a deeply superstitious man, and offers to show the runners the path into the marsh that is said to lead to her hut, according to the ghost stories he heard as a child. Before leaving, they inspect the barn and notice that there was a spooky skull graffiti'ed onto the side of the barn, with 8 spider like legs sticking out of it.
The runners neglect to inspect any of the dismembered marshmallow goats, but hear from the farmers' daughter Ella Sands that the farm's prized goat, Buttermilk, has gone missing. They're shown the path to the marsh, and notice that while there's no tracks left in the earth, something's swung and climbed through the trees in an effort to make itself harder to track. Before heading out, they do a little more investigation and notice that the chicken coop has been almost entirely emptied out, with the only thing left inside being a single, dead chocolate truffle chicken which has been entirely drained of its filling through a pair of stiletto-like punctures in the neck. Additionally, a great many spiderwebs are found beneath the coop.
The Run
The runners head out into the marsh, avoiding the deep water full of snakes, and stick to an old, raised path. They near an ancient hut, and a magical candle suddenly ignites in the window, beckoning them closer. They investigate the witch's hut, which has a table made for guests and a pot of bubbling stew on the stove despite being obviously abandoned for a great many years. Frieren determines that this is most likely just an enchantment left behind by the now-deceased witch to lure in travelers, and leave the hut behind after realizing it's a red herring.
More tracks are found that head deeper into the marsh, a pair of clawed humanoid feet as well those belonging to a giant spider, and the runners follow them deeper to a wooded hill. Cocoons made of webbing hang from the trees around the mouth of a cave, mostly containing drained chickens and swamp animals, but Frieren finds herself absolutely covered in baby spiders when she cuts open the largest sack. Thankfully, she resists the venom from the countless spider bites and the team presses forward. They avoid a trap laid in the cave consisting of stones stuck to the ceiling, Baji and Awesome Possum find themselves covered in webbing and marshmallow fluff after a gust of wind blows them off their feet, and eventually the team gets to the end of the cave and hears high-pitched, desperate sobbing.
Silky Grimshadow, the creature that's been attacking the farm, begs them to just leave him alone, while clutching Buttermilk the goat. Awesome Possum moves in to hug Silky, and the team gets him to open up about why he's been attacking the farm, decides to support Silky after learning he was abandoned by Farmer and the other rabbits once they quit their banditry, and resolves to convince Farmer and the others to allow Silky to rejoin them on the farm. There was some concern over how to keep Silky fed once he claimed he needed the blood of living creatures to live, but Buttermilk's milk makes a perfectly suitable alternative.
The runners, Silky, and Silky's pet giant spiders leave and return to the farm, and expose Farmer's past to Goodie when they confront him in the middle of the farm. Goodie is deeply disappointing in her husband for hiding his past from her, and for abandoning a friend for the past few years. After some discussion and negotiations, Farmer agrees to allow Silky to stay on the farm, as long as he doesn't eat any people or farm animals and helps repair the damage that he caused in his fits of rage. With everything resolved peacefully, the Fuzzytails insist the runners stay for dinner, and they're treated to an exquisite meal consisting entirely of the best desserts any of them have ever tasted. After their meal, the team starts to drift off to sleep in a spare room in the farm house, and suddenly find themselves jolting awake in Awesome Possum's car, back on Earth only a couple hours later.
Once Darragh gets word from his fae contacts that everything is back to normal on the farm the next day, he sends over the money promised to the runners.
Aftermath
With Silky reunited with the former Bloody Bon Bons, he becomes a valuable member of Fuzzytail Farm and gradually restores his relationship with Farmer Fuzzytail. The farm is able to continue to supply its clients, including the jarl Iobhar.
Thankful for the kindness of the runners, a package of treats and potions is sent to them along with the next shipment of crops, which eventually makes its way to their doorsteps via fairy plot magic.
Rewards
- 8,000¥ (4 RVP)
- 4 Karma (4 RVP)
- 4+2 CDP (2 RVP)
- Gear Reward of R2 Vault of Ages (1 RVP)
- Gear Reward of F4 Potency 4 "Enhance Aim" contact prep carrot cake (1 RVP)
- Gear Reward of F4 Potency 4 "[Spider] Form" or "Gecko Crawl" contact prep potion (1 RVP)
- +2 Wild Index for good deeds done for spirits
Frieren:
- +1 Wild Index for remaining service
Optional:
- Darragh Sheehan - Agent of Iobhar - Connection 3/Loyalty 1 (3 RVP)
Game Quotes
Player After Action Reports (AARs)
Frieren
Frieren does as she wishes. It was weird to see my form in such a flat, two-dimensional way. Yet, here I was. Here I went. Here I go. A day where, if I am being truthful, everything went well for once.
I would like more of these days.
Baji: The Seattle shadows sure are different from Toronto. First run out of the gate through Shadowhaven and I'm off to a metaplane. It was quite nice at first. Very pretty in a bucolic sort of way, smelled nice. The sentient rabbit people were generally friendly, especially Goody. I can't say as I cared for being an orange skinned dwarf. Turns out that being the best-looking oompa-loompa in the land is a very low hurdle. I liked that crossbow though, I'm gonna take up archery. Then the run turned to drek. Spiders! Giant troll sized spider monsters! Frag that, I never want to be stuck in spider webs again. I'm glad the Awesome Possum and Freiren kept their cool and negotiated with Silky, it was all I could do to keep from spraying the cave with crossbow bolts. They really saved the day.